Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for an investigation into Israeli Defense Force training in which soldiers simulated fighting Jewish settlers kidnapping Palestinians in the West Bank.
Following outrage over footage of IDF training in Judea and Samaria on Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the training as completely unrealistic and demanded answers as to why such training was being conducted in the first place. did.
“This hypothetical scenario is out of touch with reality, inappropriate and at a time when many settlers are fighting fiercely and even falling in defense of Israel, this hypothetical scenario is out of touch with reality, and it is a threat to the lives of our precious settler communities,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. It’s an injustice to the whole community.”
“I will not accept such callousness towards our brothers and sisters in Judea and Samaria,” he added.
The training, which simulates West Bank settlers abducting Palestinians in response to a terrorist attack, is one of more than 100 “extreme scenarios” prepared for the military. The IDF announced in response to the backlash.
Footage of the training showed soldiers preparing for the exercise, some wearing vests that read “enemy forces.”
The military apologized for labeling settlers as such in the scenario, adding that the IDF was not preparing to fight West Bank settlers. The Times of Israel reported.
“The IDF does not train in scenarios where settlers are the enemy, and marking vests in question for the purpose of separating training is part of the training safety routine,” the IDF said. “In this case, it was a mistake to label them with such an inscription, and we apologize for that.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials have denounced the training as unrealistic, but similar incidents have happened in the past.
In 2014, three Israelis confessed to the murder of Mohamed Abu Khdeir, a Palestinian teenager who was kidnapped from his home in East Jerusalem and burned to death.
His killing was preceded by the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers, whose revenge killings sparked a wave of violence across the West Bank.
Conflict in the West Bank has intensified following the October 7 terrorist attacks, as clashes between Israeli settlers and Palestinians continue.
President Biden last week issued an executive order imposing sanctions on Israeli settlers for allegedly inciting violence in the West Bank.
In his executive order, Biden said that “high levels of violence by extremist settler groups” have “reached unacceptable levels and threatens the peace and security of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Israel, and the broader Middle East.” “This poses a serious threat to stability.” ”
The order comes two weeks after the death of Abdel Jabbar, a 17-year-old American who was shot and killed in the West Bank on January 19 in an incident that is currently under investigation.
Escalating violence over the Gaza war has made 2023 the deadliest year for Palestinians in the West Bank, with at least 507 people killed, including 81 children, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.
